Being an Intellectual can be Frustrating

So, I need some help on my Master's paper. Below is the way my brain works along with a possible question to approach the topic that I'm interested in. If you have the time and the patience, it would awesome if you could look at what I have (basically a research question) and tell me if it makes sense.

(P.S. And Nick you thought you were good at metaphors.)

Bare with me.

If the physical world that we live in is a tapestry where everyone is connected by goods and services, networks and relationships, and through space and time, then we would have to say that our world is in need of mending. Some people have fallen away on loose threads. Some parts exist separately hanging on tightly to each other but with no connection to the rest of the masterpiece. Still the large part of the tapestry is in tact even if loosely connected in many parts. This larger piece, however, has areas covered in dirt and grease, and other areas are faded. Tears and holes exist throughout the fabric and the beautiful mandala that is drawn on the tapestry can no longer be seen.

This is how I see the world. There is pain here—rips, fading, missing pieces, and layers of suffocating dirt that making it a chore to grow and breath. I also see uneven stitches where people with good intentions, but the wrong skills have tried to piece the tapestry back together.

When I look at community work, social justice work; when I look at programs at Clark University; when I look at programs that are trying to improve youth/police relations, I often see well meaning stitches trying to mend together different parts of the tapestry. These stitches are quick and forceful. The pieces are cleaned off first, cared for or washed. The color isn’t tried to be brought back. It is figured that this will be done after the pieces are brought back together. But how can you find out where the puzzle comes together, if you can't see the pattern clearly?

But why must we forcefully stitch these pieces back together? This is a magical living, breathing tapestry not made out of wool, but out people. The threads can weave themselves back together, once the people who see the problem help to wash the dirt off and give them the confidence. But the washers and these magic threads also need the right skills. These tapestry has become disheveled and torn not because mind connections were broken, logic didn’t fail, but because a heart connection was broken, someone gave up on someone else or someone never believed they mattered in the first place. It was an emotional, spiritual, soulular disconnection.

Then why do we try to solve these problems using only physical or mental tools. Why does the police officer walk up to a kid with a can of spray paint with a threatening gait? Why DARE officer teach classes to say no to drugs without even letting the kids know who he is, what he likes, and why he does the work he does? Why are hug not allowed from after school workers? Why are people who work in the community often forced to play a role and separate there job from the rest of their lives? If we only use logic to solve the problems in our communities then aren’t we more or less machines creating a community that can only satisfy another machine? Don’t things just fall apart when we add emotion to the scene? We have to use emotion and humanness to solve the same problems that they create.

My master's paper will be a conversation on the need for honest interpersonal connections and the exposure of the authentic self in community development. I will wrap this discussion around the example of youth/police relations.

Question: Why is there a need for honest interpersonal connections and the exposure of the authentic self in community development? How could a focus on honest interpersonal connections and the exposure of the authentic self in youth/police programs heal and restore relationships between these two groups and the rest of the community?